ASTRONOMY. 185 



remarked in the bright i)art a condensation which had previously es- 

 caped notict". 



By '"dianietre equatorial" we presume M. Perrotin refers to the di- 

 ameter iu the plane of the orbits of the satellites. 



Uranus. — In a note communicated to the Academy of Sciences, Paris, 

 ou June 9. MM. Henry stated that, observing- on very line nights with 

 the 15inch refractor, they have satisfied themselves of tlie existence of 

 two gray belts, straight and parallel, and ])hiced almost symmetrically 

 with respect to the center of the disk of Uranus, and that, by measures 

 of their direction, thej^ have found an inclination of about 41° to the 

 orbits of the satellites ; they assume that the planet's equator is in the 

 direction of the belts. 



THE MINOll PLANETS. 



That part of the Berliner Astronomisches J ahrbuch for 1887 containing 

 its specialty, the ephemerides of the small planets for 1885, has been 

 issued in advance of the publication of the volume. There are ap]jroxi- 

 mate places for every twentieth day of 237 out of the 244 now known, 

 with accuratelj' calculated opposition ephemerides of 19. The most re- 

 liable elements of the orbits of these bodies to No. 237, inclusive, are 

 appended. Aethra continues at a distance of less than 1.0 from the 

 earth 'until Februar;y 11, aud if the orbit had been more closely deter- 

 mined, would have afibrded a favorable opportunity of applying* the 

 method of finding the solar parallax suggested by Professor Galle, as 

 the planet has been a 9th magnitude at this apposition. Eva^ Stcplienia, 

 and Agathe also approach the earth during the present year, within her 

 mean distance from the sun; on August 10 Stephenia will beat a dis- 

 tance of only 0,70, magnitude 11^. 



jEtlira has the least perihelion distance of the group, 1.G04, while 

 Andromache, with considerable eccentricity, has the greatest aphelion 

 distance, 4.726 ; so that the orbits of 244 planets extend over a space of 

 3.122, the earth's mean distance from the being taken as unity. The 

 longest period of revolution occurs in the case of Hilda; it is yet doubt- 

 ful which has the shortest period ; No. 149, Medusa, is credited with it at 

 present, but until his niember of the group has been reobserved the 

 point is perhaps doubtful. The most recently detected planet appears 

 to have the shortest revolution next to Medusa judging from the ele- 

 ments m the last circular of the Berliner Jahrbuch. {Nature.) 



Asteroids discovered in 1884. 



